Together, we work alone: two days with Star Wars: The Old Republic

Ars spends two days deep inside Star Wars: The Old Republic—one of the most …

It's lunchtime during the first of two Star Wars: The Old Republic immersion days at the EA Redwood Shores campus, and the game designers leading the event are panicking: everyone is talking about Portal 2. Instead of discussing the three exclusive hours of SWTOR we just played, most of the writers are chatting about yesterday's Portal 2 release and single-player campaign, which everyone feels pales in comparison to its co-op.

Eventually one writer prompts another with, "So, what do you think of TOR?" (All the BioWare representatives refer to it as TOR.) And the reactions are positive: the voice acting is great, gameplay is fun, and maybe the trash planet Hutta doesn't make for the most impressive starting area, but there are few complaints beyond game balance tweaks.

SWTOR has seen a lot of hype since it was announced in 2008. Everyone from Knights of the Old Republic fans to disillusioned World of Warcraft players have been anticipating its release, and so far, all the gameplay snippets the press have been afforded have lived up to the high expectations, if not exceeded them.

But SWTOR has been just out of reach for a little too long now. As a story-driven MMORPG, we can only connect to it so well with pieces of plot and teases of the innovative concepts that litter the game. Spending hours at a time with the game is a little better, but to dig any deeper emotionally, beyond the blushes of fanboyism we get with every trailer, we need the thing in our hands, we need a character that's ours. Fortunately, BioWare recently confirmed the game will be out before this year is over, so we won't wait much longer.

That's not to say that there has been anything but consistent effort from the team behind the game. SWTOR's story, which takes place 3,500 years before Star Wars IV: A New Hope, has been in development at least since 2006. According to Daniel Erickson, SWTOR's lead writer, the writing team has generated 16 novels' worth of written content for the game, one for each class specialization.

A human bounty hunter and a Chiss agent, fighting their way through trash planet Hutta.

And that's in development of the role-playing part of the game that plays to BioWare's strengths. Creating their MMO, and then weaving the stories into its persistent landscape, has proved to be the most challenging part. The team has relied heavily on its members' experience in developing past MMOs, aping off their solutions to common MMO problems, like how to place resurrection areas or distribute enemies and quest goals, and customizing them to fit BioWare's style and various plots.

"They are sort of our canaries in the coal mine," Erickson said of SWTOR's designers and developers. Without them, he said, "you might start going down a path that someone already tried in an MMO and failed miserably." The team has brought knowledge of many other non-MMO games as well, even looking to console-based sports games as inspiration for reward systems.

But Erickson notes too that editing is an important aspect of development, as it's easy for MMOs to become overextended with mechanics and concepts that ultimately go unused. Of the game mechanics selection, Erickson noted that they needed to make sure "the ones you use are right for your specific game."

One of BioWare's biggest concerns is how MMO players, notorious for valuing cold minimization of effort for maximum results above everything else, will respond to their MMO interpretation, where story is supposed to be the main attraction. "MMO players will do whatever is the most efficient, even if it is the most boring," Emmanuel Lusinchi, an associate lead designer, said.

Because of this, the team has paid special attention to mechanics that will drive players back to the story, such as a holo-communication system that makes dialogue with NPCs easier for groups, and have tried to make the storylines as compelling as possible. "It's always story versus gameplay versus immersion," Erickson said, and changing one will always affect the other two.

Concept art for a bounty hunter's weapons.

While we couldn't fully attach to our characters over the two days we were allotted with the game, we were given free reign to get as far as possible in the PvE campaign, talk to any NPCs, take on any quests, and run any flashpoints we could find (but no one got more than one). And the game is looking great—expansive, immersive, even a little moving in parts.

There are still portions of the game BioWare won't discuss, indicating they still have a long way to go before the launch this year. But they've accomplished the meshing of online play and RPG better than any of their predecessors.

The BioWare staff noted that this was part of the difficulty of conflating their dedication to storyline with a persistent MMO world: everything is permanent. In a regular RPG, you can create some catastrophic event, go back one save point, and suddenly it never happened. In an MMO, a choice like driving away or killing a companion is permanent.

In my experience, MMO players tend to dislike harsh, irreversible consequences. It's one of the reasons skill trees in MMOs have become more flexible and less permanent.

Want, wantwantwantwant this game, and now. I don't even care about end game, and other MMO silliness. If the class stories are as good as KoTOR stories, then I've got it all laid out:

Level up a smugglerLevel up a sith warriorLevel up a trooperLevel up a sith inquisitorLevel up a jedi knightLevel up an imperial agentLevel up a jedi consularLevel up a bounty hunter

And by then, probably put the game aside. No whining about nerf this, balance that, endgame crawl the other thing. I just want to consume all the class stories, the way I used to devour the newest X-Wing novel as soon as it came out.

I am going to guess that this will pull in even more casuals than WoW will, simply because they'll play the story a few dozen times.

However I also guess that there's going to be a big feeling that the MMO portion of MMO is not going to be a factor for a lot of players. I'm going to guess that there'll be thousands of players who go in and never ever do anything with another person.

If this were a true single player RPG, I would be preordering tonight. I have never been a fan of MMO's though, so now I have to decide if it will be worth trying one.

TBH, the feel of the game is very single player. If you aren't grouped, the play of it feels almost nothing like WoW, and almost entirely like Mass Effect or Dragon Age. If you are grouped, it's more unique from either game.

The BioWare staff noted that this was part of the difficulty of conflating their dedication to storyline with a persistent MMO world: everything is permanent. In a regular RPG, you can create some catastrophic event, go back one save point, and suddenly it never happened. In an MMO, a choice like driving away or killing a companion is permanent.

In my experience, MMO players tend to dislike harsh, irreversible consequences. It's one of the reasons skill trees in MMOs have become more flexible and less permanent.

Depends on what category they fall into I think. Clearly there's some market, though potentially niche, for much more serious MMOs with far harsher and more open worlds. EVE Online proves this, despite it's horrible UI, bad updates, etc., the core is so good that it's maintained itself successfully and grown for over 7 years now. It's not a "WOW killer" or whatever, never will be, but there's clearly profitable audiences to be served beyond that set. So I think we could see some interesting innovation there and still have a successful game.

At the same time it's worth pointing out that EVE may have one of, if not the, most flexible and non-lockin skill systems of any MMO ever. Given enough time literally anyone can do anything with the same character. Beyond a certain point becoming older and more experienced tends to expand the breadth, not depth, of options available. To their credit, CCP has worked towards making all aspects of characters themselves ever more flexible and open to change. At this point about the only true static of characters are basics about their looks (ie., male vs female, overall racial look) and their names (which is why choosing a good name you'll be happy with is in some ways the most important decision you can make).

I like the path that Bioware is taking, as I always felt that the "RPG" component of current MMORPGs was weak at best. My primary concern is whether the game play is essentially "WoW plus cover," with a skill bar, auto-attacking, and a basic "stand there and shoot it until it is dead" mentality.

A reskinned WoW with a better story, though a step in the right direction, doesn't really pique my interest (though I am certain it is exactly what others are looking for!).

Did this preview reveal anything that could shed light on this question?

I'm curious if this was a mistake in the article or if you've revealed something..

Bioware has commissioned several "Star Wars: The Old Republic" novels with Lucas' approval. I just read one of them.. in the book there are no "Rebels". There is the Republic, and the Empire. They are fairly equal in power.. e.x. the republic holds Coruscant and is not running from the Empire like original 3 movies.

Did Bioware refer to "Rebel forces" and this reveals a big story item, or was it a typo in the article?

It seems like a fairly rich backdrop for a game like this.. at this point there is no "there are only two Sith" thing going on for example.

While you can exercise choice in your moral path, you can't do much to change your geographical one. Characters that begin on one planet will always follow the same planet-to-planet trajectory as the story progresses, and will have no navigational options, though there are some opportunities for action on the side, like space combat and flashpoints.

This was probably the only bad news I saw; the rest sounds great to me! Especially the holo-communication. I didn't group up much in WoW, mostly because it was a pain to stick with other people when half were hell-bent on completing the mission ASAP and the other half wanted to dick around (note: I played it during the first 6 months or so, before a lot of grouping improvements).

Of course the story is the real draw; SW+Bioware=Win (+ voice acting = more Win). The timeline trailers and cinematics have been top-notch, and really got me drooling. And while I don't love the cartoony graphics, some of the concept art for costumes and weapons has been fantastic.

I will be sensitive to price though; if they want $15/mo it'll have to be be more spectacular than everything else on my to-play list. If it's $10/mo or less, I might not be so upset about sometimes only playing once a week.

I'm curious if this was a mistake in the article or if you've revealed something..

Bioware has commissioned several "Star Wars: The Old Republic" novels with Lucas' approval. I just read one of them.. in the book there are no "Rebels". There is the Republic, and the Empire. They are fairly equal in power.. e.x. the republic holds Coruscant and is not running from the Empire like original 3 movies.

Did Bioware refer to "Rebel forces" and this reveals a big story item, or was it a typo in the article?

It seems like a fairly rich backdrop for a game like this.. at this point there is no "there are only two Sith" thing going on for example.

You are right, "rebel" is supposed to be "Republic". Corrections made!

Actually on pricing... if the game's going to be fairly linear I might actually prefer if they charged like $10 per planet (like a DLC model, except it might make better sense for MMOs). I play kind of slow so there's no way I'd get as much content at the monthly rate as someone who races through. Per planet pricing (PPP!) would let me meander through, explore side quests, socialize, and then pay to advance the story on my own schedule. I'd be amazed if Bioware could be sold on the idea though

I am going to guess that this will pull in even more casuals than WoW will, simply because they'll play the story a few dozen times.

However I also guess that there's going to be a big feeling that the MMO portion of MMO is not going to be a factor for a lot of players. I'm going to guess that there'll be thousands of players who go in and never ever do anything with another person.

You can count me in as one of those casuals. As I get older and my children grow up, I have less and less time to deal with all the idiosyncrasies of the MMO crowd. I solo these days. It is rare for me to even 5-man these days.

What makes WoW a huge success and can make TOR a huge success is the ability of players to consume the game in the way they want. In WoW you can have your socialization from none to "this is my life and reality is just a temporary stop". You can even change the amount day to day. If you hate PvP that is totally fine because it is completely optional. Are you tired of running raids after years and years of doing that none stop? You can choose from other options like soloing, PvP, collecting, or just sit around chatting with friends.

A MMORPG designed like WoW has longevity because the player base can adapt the game to their lives as they get older.

While you can exercise choice in your moral path, you can't do much to change your geographical one. Characters that begin on one planet will always follow the same planet-to-planet trajectory as the story progresses, and will have no navigational options, though there are some opportunities for action on the side, like space combat and flashpoints.

This was probably the only bad news I saw; the rest sounds great to me! Especially the holo-communication. I didn't group up much in WoW, mostly because it was a pain to stick with other people when half were hell-bent on completing the mission ASAP and the other half wanted to dick around (note: I played it during the first 6 months or so, before a lot of grouping improvements).

Of course the story is the real draw; SW+Bioware=Win (+ voice acting = more Win). The timeline trailers and cinematics have been top-notch, and really got me drooling. And while I don't love the cartoony graphics, some of the concept art for costumes and weapons has been fantastic.

I will be sensitive to price though; if they want $15/mo it'll have to be be more spectacular than everything else on my to-play list. If it's $10/mo or less, I might not be so upset about sometimes only playing once a week.

Agree, the above quoted excerpt from the article gave me a little hesitation as well. Reading the article I am coming away with the feeling that this is less like an MMO than a Multiplayer RPG. It appears a lot of it is more linear than one might expect from an MMO. But then again, I won't know for sure until I get a chance to actually play it.

I kind of wrote this game off... I haven't heard anything about it lately and it's been 3 years since I first heard about it. I figured that Bioware ran into some issues or felt that it wasn't good enough to compete with WOW and went back to the drawing board.... but after reading about what TOR is going to be like I am more excited than ever and thoroughly believe that KOTORO is going to be the MMORPG to unseat WOW.

You've got Star Wars for one, the most loved franchise.... ever.You've got Bioware (if you disregard Dragon Age II) who have done a phenomenal job with their stories in RPGS since Baldurs Gate up to Mass Effect 2.You've got companions just like in Most Bioware games with the added bonus of being able to be romantically involved with them.You've got a compelling story in the Star Wars universe.

Needless to say I am very excited and can't wait to play the game and move from playing DDO and LOTRO. I abandoned WOW a long time ago.

What makes WoW a huge success and can make TOR a huge success is the ability of players to consume the game in the way they want. In WoW you can have your socialization from none to "this is my life and reality is just a temporary stop". You can even change the amount day to day. If you hate PvP that is totally fine because it is completely optional. Are you tired of running raids after years and years of doing that none stop? You can choose from other options like soloing, PvP, collecting, or just sit around chatting with friends.

A MMORPG designed like WoW has longevity because the player base can adapt the game to their lives as they get older.

I agree. And I've always felt that one of WoW's biggest shortfalls was the lack of single player and coop instances. Obviously in WoW's case it's difficult to balance and design such things with trio role structure (Tank, Healer, DPS) being such a low level integral part of the design, but for a new MMO designed correctly that might now be the case.

In my experience, MMO players tend to dislike harsh, irreversible consequences. It's one of the reasons skill trees in MMOs have become more flexible and less permanent.

The opportunity cost of making a choice reduces the enjoyment of the final experience; you have option 1, but the appeal of options 2 and 3 are now lost to you. By making choices permanent, it makes players more invested in the decision they make, but they will be less happy due to the loss of the benefits the other choices would have provided.

So it depends on what the experience needs to be. Books, movies and short games can easily go emotionally deep, particularly near the end; the viewer/player can experience the complex mix of emotions, then be released from them as they leave the fictitious world. MMORPGs, whose very design wants players to keep coming back, will have a harder time of this; at most being able to hit these more difficult choices in a limited and careful manner so as not to make the game no different than life itself - a long list of difficult choices, none of which have easy or enjoyable solutions.

They then roll a random number automatically, and the highest delivers their answer to the NPC. Each player receives "social points" when their answer wins, though the BioWare reps were cagey about how the social points were going to factor into the game.

This sounds like a pretty terrible mechanic. Seems like you'd often be fighting over the flow of a conversation. Adding points to that system makes things even messier.

What makes WoW a huge success and can make TOR a huge success is the ability of players to consume the game in the way they want. In WoW you can have your socialization from none to "this is my life and reality is just a temporary stop". You can even change the amount day to day. If you hate PvP that is totally fine because it is completely optional. Are you tired of running raids after years and years of doing that none stop? You can choose from other options like soloing, PvP, collecting, or just sit around chatting with friends.

A MMORPG designed like WoW has longevity because the player base can adapt the game to their lives as they get older.

I agree. And I've always felt that one of WoW's biggest shortfalls was the lack of single player and coop instances. Obviously in WoW's case it's difficult to balance and design such things with trio role structure (Tank, Healer, DPS) being such a low level integral part of the design, but for a new MMO designed correctly that might now be the case.

LOTRO has the same kind of role structure but it has mini-instances you can run because you can choose a companion of some other role (or even the same role if you so choose) . You cannot outfit this companion but you can change their skills around . LOTRO did a lot of things well .. it was just poorly marketed . I myself play both LOTRO as well as WoW . And one thing I really miss in LOTRO (I miss it in RIFT too) is the auto-group . Some people hate it but those are mostly the min-maxers who don't want to mix with the casuals .

In my experience, MMO players tend to dislike harsh, irreversible consequences. It's one of the reasons skill trees in MMOs have become more flexible and less permanent.

The opportunity cost of making a choice reduces the enjoyment of the final experience; you have option 1, but the appeal of options 2 and 3 are now lost to you. By making choices permanent, it makes players more invested in the decision they make, but they will be less happy due to the loss of the benefits the other choices would have provided.

So it depends on what the experience needs to be. Books, movies and short games can easily go emotionally deep, particularly near the end; the viewer/player can experience the complex mix of emotions, then be released from them as they leave the fictitious world. MMORPGs, whose very design wants players to keep coming back, will have a harder time of this; at most being able to hit these more difficult choices in a limited and careful manner so as not to make the game no different than life itself - a long list of difficult choices, none of which have easy or enjoyable solutions.

All true, but I was just making an observation about typical MMO players. For example, over the years Blizzard has shaped WoW in order to maximize the fun for the the majority of players. Understanding that you can't please all of the player base all of the time, they settled for trying to please most of the players most of the time. You can disagree with that philosophy, but it has worked for them in the monetary sense. Perhaps a game designed with a more targeted demographic in mind could none the less also be very financially successful, I don't know.

In the original release of WoW it was almost punitively difficult to change your talents around. It required an investment of gold and time. Over time they've made it cheaper and easier, even allowing multiple talent trees. WoW has also done things like reduce corpse run time, streamline instance runs, streamline professions, and dozens of other things in order to increase the fun and decrease the tedium for most players. Everything Blizzard has done to modify the game points to the fact that most players don't seem to enjoy draconian systems that punish bad decisions (not that most players don't want a challenge mind you, it just that the consequences for failure shouldn't be so harsh).

I'm well aware that there are subsets of players who enjoy difficult gameplay though, I'm just not convinced it's the majority of them, but perhaps a marketable minority?

Does it bother anyone else that all Bioware is showing/allowing people to play is the same stuff. Is the Republic/Jedi side not as polished as the Sith? Why are reporters not playing Jedi Knights for two days and reporting about that?

Does it bother anyone else that all Bioware is showing/allowing people to play is the same stuff. Is the Republic/Jedi side not as polished as the Sith? Why are reporters not playing Jedi Knights for two days and reporting about that?

I was thinking the opposite after seeing their video for one of the flash points on their website. I had noticed that most of their focus was around the Republic. This actually makes me feel relieved that they do have some Imperial to show off.

I'm well aware that there are subsets of players who enjoy difficult gameplay though, I'm just not convinced it's the majority of them, but perhaps a marketable minority?

I think you're exactly correct. Games like Demon Souls, popular in part because of their difficulty, play to this marketable minority; but the majority of game players are not that group. From casual gaming to the general MMO player, I think the ratio of average gamer to that 'marketable minority' is likely along the lines of the ratio of car drivers to people who watch Top Gear; or movie goers to film aficionados.

I really hope that dual talents make it in, and that respecs aren't too hard to get. I always like playing a healer type in groups, but that's never very fun solo. Dual spec in WoW is probably the single greatest thing they ever did to help make healing more fun.

The loss/killing of companion thing is something I wish WoW would do more of. The semi-recent phasing aspect of WoW, where you directly impact real world objects and people is the main reason why Cataclysm leveling was so great. Instead of doing quests just for the xp, I was staying in zones to finish the job that I had started of cleaning up whatever mess was occurring. That kind of real world impact is pretty powerful motivation. While TOR doesn't sound like it has world consequences, character consequences are definately a good start.

The Role Playing aspect is also fairly big for me. I mean, currently, WoW is used as a social hub for my friends since we're all too busy to hang out a lot. But WoW becomes something to do with friends when time is limited. The actual "game" of leveling gear and doing more numbers isn't very fun to me by itself. The "game" of playing a character with friends sounds like my kind of game though, and sounds a lot more interesting than trying to get a character to max level and running the same 8 dungeons over and over and over and over.

Does it bother anyone else that all Bioware is showing/allowing people to play is the same stuff. Is the Republic/Jedi side not as polished as the Sith? Why are reporters not playing Jedi Knights for two days and reporting about that?

There were Jedi immersion days last December (I believe) that Ars did not attend.

I've never been a big fan of MMO's because it seemed like to be any good/get any fun, you'd have to invest much more time than I have. I also never much cared for the invent-your-own, free-for-all nature. I was worried about the next Old Republic RPG being multiplayer, but it sounds like they might actually be able to pull off a good meshing of the two.

"As I found when we played through the Taral V flashpoint at PAX East, the global cooldown is still a little bit slow for my taste, and there will not be any sort of stackable stat to increase it, a la haste in WoW. "

This has me worried a lot. I found the pace of combat in Dragon Age I to be so slow it actually ruined the game for me. If I have to sit there and wait for an appreciable amount of time between actions, that is a game design failure. I want to play, not watch. I really hope they don't go down the slow road with TOR -- there is a happy medium between a click fest and twiddling your thumbs, and it doesn't sound like they've found it yet.

I was all fired up for this as a different genre of MMO, but I am concerned that it is will be primarily a subscription based single player game.

"A very minor downside to the tight storyline each class follows is that play will still be very linear, compared to other MMOs like WoW. While you can exercise choice in your moral path, you can't do much to change your geographical one. Characters that begin on one planet will always follow the same planet-to-planet trajectory as the story progresses, and will have no navigational options, though there are some opportunities for action on the side, like space combat and flashpoints. "

So me and my friends choose different classes/races do we start on different planets and may never get to quest together?

The one thing I keep seeing omitted in these teaser previews is discussion about the UI and overall controls of the game. I mean, sure, I get it that TOR does some things different and they're trying to not fall into the same holes that other MMO's do regarding gameplay. But if I have to move a frigging mouse all over the screen and hit buttons like a crack-fiend on a binge like I see some WOW players do then no amount of "immersible gameplay" will make up for it. Myself, and others, suffer from different maladies such as carpal tunnel and having a UI that forces the use of a keyboard/mouse eliminates some games as options to play.

I mean, this is the same outfit that gave the finger to PC players when they asked for gamepad support for Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, and Dragon Age. Here's a little snippet here:

After reading that I made an active effort to make sure that NONE of the games I purchased were new and bought used on the 360 while happily giving them the finger.

If the change that and support a more flexible UI, like DCO or the upcoming Terra, then I'll buy day one. Until then, I'm reserving judgement until I see the game with it's UI in action before I spend any money on another MMO.

RSI and accessibility are pretty good reasons for devs to support a controller, but it doesn't seem like it would be easy to map the ridiculous number of keys needed for a modern MMO. The only reasonable way I can think of is to have the sticks control movement & camera, one or two buttons to toggle "mode" (like environmental, communication, or attack/heal/buff mode), then have each mode include individual mapping sets for the various attacks or interactions on all the remaining buttons. And you'd probably at need at least two sets just for attacks...